The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. [volume], June 22, 1921, Page 4, Image 4

About The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1909-1931

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which wo have recognized in onrselves. It
contains the element of service, and in this
provides for onr right adjustment to the
world's work. The high calling of God in
Christ Jesus is a calling to the service of our
fellowmen. "When Christ was here on earth
we are told that He went about doing good.
He said of Himself, "The Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to
give Ilis life a ransom for many." And He
said again. "My meat is to do the will of Him
that sent Me and to finish His work."
Many business men are thinking today of
the necessity for the element of service in any
worthy conception of life. The rotary clubs
are saying, "He profits most who serves best."
There is some recognition of the fact that a
man ought to think not only of making money,
but of being of the highest service to others
while he makes it. His work must be a work
that needs to be done. If you are a merchant
you must sell such goods as will really meet
the needs of those to whom you sell. If you
are a producer, your product must be some
thing which will minister to the well being of
others. He is a pitiable wretch indeed who is
satisfied to spend his life in a work that does
nobody any good. And he is a yet more pit
iable wretch who is willing to spend his life
in a work that harms his fellowman.
It is necessary that multitudes serve their fel
lows in material things. Such have only a
limited amount of time which they can give to
spiritual service. But the highest service is
that which is spiritual. And it is necessary
that some shall give their whole time vo the
spiritual service of their fellowmen. St. Paul
had been a tent maker. He made his living by
this occupation. In it he served a material need
of others. But St. Paul heard a call to a higher
service. Tentmaking was honorable and nec
essary work. But heralding the glad tidings
of Christ's redemption was a transforming
service, which lifted him into unmeasjred
heights, and made him the greatest of all the
Master's workmen. Are you sure of the ser
vice that God wants you to render? May it
not be that you have hastily concluded that
your work is to be in material things, without
giving a due consideration to God's need for
workers in spiritual things? Have you ever
considered prayerfully and earnestly the pas
sibility that God wants you to preach the gas
pel? Let me urge you to listen for God's call
for you to serve Him in the gospel of His Son.
Let me urge you to follow His guidance, whir
ever He leads you. Make sure from Him of
the right field and realm for your work.
The Christian ideal of life answers the need
for the unifying and perfecting of our personal
powers in its call to individual perfection. It
contains the element of the true self-attain
ment. All our capacities are to be fully de
veloped, and fully sanctified. We are to b?
made complete in Christ. We are to enter into
our full salvation. This means that we are to
be brought into perfect conformity to the will
of God. The Saviour sets this goal of life
before us in the command, "Be ye therefore
perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven
is perfect." It is astonishing that any intelli
gent person should ever deny that this element
belongs to a worthy ideal of life. But some
have done so. Some ill-balanced lookers on at
the unsurpassed heroism of our soldiers in the
late war told us that they had discovered an
ideal superior to that of the gospel. We were
told that the Church would hav<5 to learn and
preach their new gospel, or go out of business
This new gospel was to be one of service di
vorced from the element of individual holi
ness. It advocates probably do not see what
it involves, but it really tells us that we are
to seek to have GotVs will realized for others,
but not for ourselves. We arc to seek holi
ness for others, but not for ourselves. This
is involved in the call for service to others, ac
companied with denunciation of the call to
seek our own salvation. It is incomprehensible
that even the craze to say something new and
startling should have made such fools of some
men who not long ago were publishing articles
of this character. The Church understands
Christ's exposition of the meaning and
purpose of life sufficiently for practical ends,
and the Church in the main preaches and
teaches these things as Christ taught them.
True self-attainment and true unselfish service
go hand in hand. They are but the two sides
of the same unity, forever one and inseparable.
Perfection of the individual is the most funda
mental and inescapable duty of the individual.
According to Jesus Christ, "Your own sal
vation'' must ever be the first aim of every
man. "Seek ve first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness" is a command which still
stands, and will while God and His righteous
ness stand.
The third element of this Christian ideal of
life is the recognition of the true life as the
working out of a plan of God. God has a plan
for every life. In the mind of God there is the
ideal of the person He would have you to be.
He sees you not only as you are today, He sees
you as a perfect one. He cherishes that ideal
of the individual which He created you to be
come. Your full salvation means your coming
to fulfill this thought of God for you. And
there is a definite work which God has planned
for you to do. He has not planned for anyone
else to do it ? only you. Your true service,
your only possible service, is simply your doing
the work that God has planned for you. Have
you accepted God's plan for your life? Can
you say tonight even with your Lord, "My
meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and
to finish His work!"
Observe one further fact. This plan of God
is revealed and made possible in Christ. God
has no plan for you apart from Christ. "I
press toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Only in
Christ are you brought into harmony with the
purpose for which you were created. Only in
Christ is your salvation found. Then make
haste to lay hold of the hope set before you.
He of good cheer, be earnest, be enthusiastic
in your earnestness, for He has overcome the
world. Follow Him to the end, and you shall
come oft conquerors and more than conquer
ers.
"And they who with their Leader
Have conquered in the fight,
Forver and forever
Shall walk in robes of white."
Savannah, Ga.
BORN FROM ABOVE.
By Mr. C. B. Stevens.
The marginal reference is very often tho
best interpretation of the Divine Word and
surely is impressively so in the case of our
Saviour's conversation with Nicodemus John
3 :3-7.
In the present day when the great lack of
spiritual power is so evident in the life of the
Church, ought we not to emphasize the neces
sity of the new life from above? There is so
much made of self-effort just now. This may
be commendable in worldly schemes and pur
suits, but as touching the Christian life must
end in dismal failure. We cannot, by any pos
sible means, purely human, however self-sacri
ficing and noble, come into the relationship of
God's children, and the sooner we realize the
litter futility of such esffort and lay
hold on the blessed truth that only as we re
ceive Christ Jesus into our hearts by faith can
we hope to become sons of God, the better it
will be for us.
Is not this, perhaps, the reason why so many
professing Chistians seek the pleasures of this
present world (which is at enmity with God)
and fail to appreciate and enjoy the riches of
God's grace, so abundantly poured out upon
His children through Christ our Saviour?
The question arises: Have they really ex
perienced a change of heart? Do they know
Christ as a personal, living Saviour and Lord?
Has the love of God been shed abroad in their
hearts by His Spirit? The early disciples en
dured hardship, privation, hunger, fatigue, loss
of property and persecution and sang praises
to God amidst all this and scorned earth's glo
ries, for they had greater glory within them !
Paul and Silas, with bleeding backs, and
with feet in the stocks, thrust into the inner
and loathsome prison, rejoiced at midnight,
bursting out into songs of glory. Why? Was
it not because the grace of God c presence was
so tremendously real and so glorious that noth
ing could hold back the joy?
Why do not we experience more of such
divine grace and glory? Is it not because we
are trying the earthly route of self-effort and
forgetting that the only way is Christ's way,
the heavenly birth from above?
The Unitarian must make much of human
effort and development, for Christ to him is
simply a great Teacher, Exemplar and Leader,
but to us He is the Divine Son of God, Who
brought us this life by the offering of Himself
on the cross, the shedding of His precious
blood on Calvary, and Who now dwells in the
heart of each of His followers. Our growth,
like our birth, is of Him and by Him, and as
He works in us we can work out our salvation
to the praise and glory of His name. Let us
beware of all self-effort for development and
growth, for our beginning, our continuance
and our ending in the heavenly kingdom is all
of Christ and Christ only. To God be all the
glory !
Charlottesville, Va.
"THE DUAL NATURE' ?THE OLD AND
THE NEW.
By Rev. William II. Bates, D. D.
I. The fact of the two natures. Col. 3 :9,
10; Eph. 4:22-24; John 3:6.
II. The source of the old nature. Gen. 5:3.
III. The character of the old nature. Eph.
4:22; Isa. 1:4-6; Col. 3:5, 6, 8; Roin. 7:18;
3 :10.
IV. The unchangeableness of the old nature.
John 3:6; Rom. 8:7. (Therefore the common
notion of a "change of heart" is unscriptural.)
V. The source of the new nature. John 3:3;
1:12, 13; Eph. 2:10; 2 Cor. 5:17.
VI. The character of the new nature. Eph.
4:24; Col. 3:10 (13, 13) ; Gal. 5:22, 23; 1 John
3:9.
VII. The conflict of the two natures. Gal.
5 :16, 17 ; Rom. 7 :15-24.
VIII. The victory of the new nature. Rom.
7:24 and 25 (first clause); Rom. 8:37; John
6:40; Rev. 2:7; 3:5; 3:21.
Solemnity and gravity on all occasions, cer
tainly carry with them dignity; but friendship
ought to be easier and more free and more
pleasant and tending more to every kind of
politeness and good nature. ? Cicero.